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This is a painting of two individuals in a dimly lit room. One person on the left is seated; they are richly dressed in a gray hat and long gray coat, and they look directly toward us. They have pale skin, dark hair, and a dark mustache. They are being assisted by another person on the right who helps them take off their boots. The assistant also appears to have light skin and dark hair, and they wear simple brown clothes. They are in shadow, while the seated person’s face is brightly lit. The dark room features a table with an ornate cloth, a small dog under a chair, scattered shoes, fabric, and an archway showing a glimpse of an exterior scene with a fountain and obelisk against a twilight sky.
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This is a painting of two individuals in a dimly lit room. One person on the left is seated; they are richly dressed in a gray hat and long gray coat, and they look directly toward us. They have pale skin, dark hair, and a dark mustache. They are being assisted by another person on the right who helps them take off their boots. The assistant also appears to have light skin and dark hair, and they wear simple brown clothes. They are in shadow, while the seated person’s face is brightly lit. The dark room features a table with an ornate cloth, a small dog under a chair, scattered shoes, fabric, and an archway showing a glimpse of an exterior scene with a fountain and obelisk against a twilight sky.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Anthonij de Bordes and His Valet

Michael Sweerts

Date
c. 1648
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 50.7 × 66.6 cm (19 15/16 × 26 1/4 in.) framed: 69.85 × 86.36 × 5.72 cm (27 1/2 × 34 × 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
2012.13.1
Credit line
Gift from the Collection of Dr. Arthur and Mrs. Arlene Elkind, Fund given in honor of Derald Ruttenberg’s Grandchildren, and New Century Fund
Time span
1601 to 1650
Department
CNE-B
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Baroque
  • Flemish
  • daily life
  • genre
  • seated
  • portrait
  • Servant
  • Acquired after publication of Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century
  • De Bordes, Antonij
Provenance

Probably the sitter; probably by inheritance to his daughter, Maria de Bordes [1655-1686]; probably by inheritance to her husband, Daniël Deutz [1644-1707];[1] by descent in the De Bordes family; by inheritance to C.J. de Bordes, Velp and Bussum, by 1907;[2] C.A. Van Walré de Bordes, The Hague; sold November 1984 through (S. Nystad, The Hague) to Dr. Arthur and Arlene Elkind, New Rochelle;[3] purchased 9 February 2012 by NGA. [1] The painting corresponds to an entry in the estate inventory of Daniël Deutz compiled on 5 November 1708, in which is described, with no artist given, "een stuck daar den ouden Heer Anthonij de Bordes de laarsen werdt uijtgetrocken" [a piece showing Anthonij de Bordes the Elder having his boots removed]. Deutz married Maria de Bordes in 1677. See Guido M.C. Jansen, "A Family Tradition Confirmed: Sweerts's Portrait of Anthonij de Bordes," _The Hoogsteder Mercury_12 (1991): 37-41. Jansen speculates that Maria and Daniël's son, Anthony Deutz, may have owned the painting and that it must have been withheld from Anthony's 1731 auction "owing to its value as a family heirloom." [2] W. Martin, ""Michiel Sweerts als schilder. Proeve van een Biografie en een Catalogus van zijn schilderijen," _Oud Holland_ 25 (1907): 146-147, no. 5, repro. [3] Nystad Oude Kunst Records, 1958-1994, accession number 970019, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: box 13, folder: corresp. 1974-79, W; box 18, folder: corresp. 1980, W; box 25, folder: corresp. Amerika, 1985, D-F; box 41, folder: invoices, 1984; copies in NGA curatorial files.

Inscription

on saddle in right foreground, in monogram: MS

NGA object ID 156940. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.